It was Dec. 26, 1984, at the Pacific Coliseum. The Canucks tied Marcel Dionne and the Kings, 3-3, in front of maybe 10,000 fans. Which meant there were approximately 6,000 empty seats.

The modest crowd was understandable for one simple reason: the Canucks were a terrible, terrible team. In 84-85, they were so bad that their new head coach, Bill LaForge, only lasted 20 games before he was fired. Among the losses under LaForge: 13-2 to Philadelphia; 9-3 to Chicago; 7-0 to Edmonton; 10-3 to Los Angeles; and for good measure, 7-0 to Edmonton one more time.

Vancouver would go on to finish 25-46-9 with a minus-117 goal differential. Just a couple of seasons after a Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup final, average attendance for Canucks home games dipped to 11,147. The next year, it fell to 10,446. The year after that, it bottomed out at 10,406, the lowest mark in franchise history.